Bhairathi Ranagal, the brand-new Kannada film starring Shiv Rajkumar, is all about a pro bono lawyer who spends most of his time helping the needy and destitute. Things go south while they’re dealing with an industrialist, which triggers him to take the law into his own hands. The 2024 film is a prequel to Mufti, Narthan’s film that was released in 2017.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Bhairathi Ranagal burn down the government office?
Bhairathi Ranagal began with a scene of the villagemen in Ronapura struggling to survive because of the lack of water. A young boy named Bhairathi Ranagal was unable to put up with the pain of his people and tired of submitting the written pleas of his father to the government offices. He was deeply affected by the nonchalant behavior of the government officers and bombed the place in retaliation. Bhairathi Ranagal, as a child, was sentenced to a juvenile home for twenty years for killing the government officers. But his action led to the village receiving water. Eventually iron ore was found locally, and that led to the establishment of steel plants, one of them run by the Parande Group.
Did Ranagal educate himself in the prison?
Instead of becoming a criminal during his time in prison, Ranagal took to reading countless books from the library and educated himself to become a lawyer. Since his father dedicated his life to the people of the village, he wanted to continue the good work once he got out of prison. Ranagal turned a metal scrapyard into his office for the poor and destitute people living around him. Most of them worked for the Parande Steel Company. Ranagal established his reputation as a lawyer who would save the needy from powerful men/women, and he never asked for payment for the services he provided. Dr. Vaishali, a doctor at a nearby hospital, was also impressed by Ranagal’s work, and it was possible that she was attracted to him.
What case did Ranagal take up?
Ranagal was approached by Varada, one of the employees of the factory, with the intention of filing a case against Parande Industries. His case stated the factory had bare minimum safety facilities for the workers, and that the manager had hired Ghatta, a rowdy, to intimidate and keep them from forming a union. Ranagal took up the case, and his first move was to put Ghatta behind bars and help form the union, followed by the organization of strikes too. The workers were fired for going against the company rules, and adding to their agony was their inability to sell the land their homes were built on. The government officers stated the workers sold their land to Parande Group, and thus the company made it worse for Ranagal and his client.
How did Parande win the case?
Ranagal was able to find evidence to prove that one of the workers was not in town when Parande group claimed to have gotten the consenting signatures for the land acquisition. This put the Parande group on the backfoot, and as a result the owner, Parande himself, was on the verge of receiving a harsh sentence. Parande’s lawyer suggested another plan which involved killing the ex-employees who were planning to appear in front of the court. Parande bailed Ghatta out and put him on the job he was good at. Ghatta killed everyone on the list given to him from the Ronapuraa town.
Why did Ranagal become a gangster?
To Ranagal’s shock, the judge was bribed to go against the ex-employees, and Parande and his company were found not guilty of harassing their workers. The powerful and the influential won, which triggered Ranagal. An angry Ranagal, out of rage, had a one-on-one fight with Ghatta’s men and eventually killed him. He took over the land and proclaimed himself a mafia don. Ranagal didn’t have the power to help everyone as a lawyer, but as a don, he could intimidate those who harassed the people of Ronapuraa. His transformation was aimed at Parande’s destruction in revenge for the merciless slaughter of the workers.
Was Parande successful in using political support?
Ranagal also took over the iron ore-rich land by purchasing it and began the mining work. The idea was to become as rich as Parande to counter him and close down his nemesis’ company. Ranagal shared the profits with the people of the town, as his way of giving it back to them. He could not help them when Ghatta wreaked havoc on them. The villagers were in need of financial aid and Ranagal was able to give them that. He was just like any other mafia don, maybe even modeled after Vito Corleone of The Godfather, who would go to any extent to help people in need of safety and money. Ranagal had constructed a hospital for Ronapura, and everyone was grateful to him for taking up such noble efforts. Parande had to find a way to decimate Ranagal since his nemesis had become indestructible in Ronapuraa. Ranagal had become a demigod figure with the people of the town on his side. Parande wanted to run the place using fear but that plan went out of the window the moment Ghatta was killed. The only way out was to approach politicians and fund their parties to make them his allies. Politics was the only game left and he managed to influence a strong political leader, Raghuveer, who was set to make his brother the chief minister. Raghuveer trapped the current chief minister Sabha, forcing him to resign as the chief minister to pave the way for his brother.Â
Parande promised to fund/bribe Raghuveer and his MLAs so that they remained loyal. This was a smart plan to eradicate Ranagal and reduce his power and influence to nothing. Raghuveer agreed to the plan, since it would benefit many of his allies in the assembly. Nevertheless, politicians thrive on corruption, and Raghuveer was one of the many hoping to stay in power with Parande’s financial support. They began to target and shut down all of Ranagal’s mining work and industries, and Parande assumed this was just the beginning of the end of his archenemy.
Did Ranagal win the battle in the end?
Ranagal was severely hit by this move since he was losing a lot of money meant for the upliftment of the people. Ranagal could be considered a gray character who had his reasons for taking up this life of violence, something he had sworn off after his stint with prison. Somehow, a piece of his violent past stayed with him, which might have triggered him to take up arms against injustice and intolerance. His Robin Hood nature was turning out to be beneficial for the locals but Parande and his political allies were not happy with Ranagal’s deified stature. The only way for Ranagal to remain in power was to gain political support as well and throw his money in the ring just like Parande did. On the day of the chief minister’s swearing-in ceremony, Raghuveer was informed about his MLAs switching to side with Sabha, and he was made the leader of the state.
Ranagal used the same trick as Parande and made sure Sabha and his MLAs would be his allies from that point on. Parande was foolish to believe Ranagal would not stoop to the same depths as him. This also proves Parande’s anger clouded his decision-making skills while Ranagal was calm throughout the ordeal. The movie could not get more ridiculous than this. However, viewers are no strangers to suspension of disbelief when they go to watch Kannada films, and somehow the filmmaker made this development look plausible.
Bhairathi Ranagal ended with a cliched confrontation fight sequence between Ranagal and Parande. The good versus evil fight was inevitable, and the face-off was presented to showcase Ranagal as the hero who came out victorious by killing Parande in Ronapura. This was the town where the conflict began, and the ordeal would end here as well. Ranagal survived to become one of the powerful gang lords in the state. Raghuveer, the politician who was wronged, also decided to stay quiet till the right time emerged to get rid of Ranagal. Years later, Ranagal was still in power. His indestructible stature led to the introduction of Gana in the film Mufti.
As seen in Mufti, he was an undercover cop sent to dethrone Ranagal. The end of Bhairathi Ranagal would make way for the plot in the film Mufti, and that movie will expand on the saga of the lawyer-turned-mafia don.
